Worth Steel Plant is quite characteristic of Ralston Crawford's work, both thematically and stylistically. Factories, bridges, boxcars, grain elevators, ships and docks are among subjects which frequently recur in his paintings. Detail has been reduced to a minimum and the color areas are flat with very little modulation. Only in the depiction of the grass in the foreground has the artist broken his color to differentiate the organic nature of the grass with the stark block-like forms of the factory against a cloudless pale blue sky.
According to a letter from Crawford, the Worth Steel Plant was located "on the route of the old Pennsylvania Railroad at or very near Claymont, Delaware...near the Pennsylvania stateline."
Crawford was born in 1906 in St. Catherines, Ontario, near Buffalo, New York where his family moved when he was still a boy. His interest turned to art at an early age and he studied in art schools in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Paris and at Columbia University in New York. By the end of the 1930's he had established his reputation not only as a painter but as a lithographer and photographer as well. He taught throughout the United States. After serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, Crawford returned to art and teaching.
Source: Bulletin, March-April, 1978.
Exhibition History"Selected Cowles Family Gifts to the Permanent Collection," Des Moines Art Center, July 30 - Sept. 11, 1994
"Ralston Crawford," organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, N.Y., (circulated to: Whitney Museum of American Art, Oct. 2, 1985 - Feb. 2, 1986; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Apr. 19 - June 1, 1986; Portland Art Museum, OR, July 12 - Aug. 31, 1986; Akron Art Museum, OH, Sept. 19 - Nov. 2, 1986; Grand Rapids Art Museum, MI, Nov. 17, 1986 - Jan. 4, 1987)
Selected Works from the Des Moines Art Center's Permanent Collection," organized and circulated by the Waterloo Municipal Galleries, swponsored by the Nationbal Bank of Waterloo, Painting was not exhibited at the Waterloo Municipal Galleries, (circulated to: Charles H. MacNider Museum, Mason City, Jan. 15 - Feb. 22, 1984; Muscatine Art Center, Apr. 1 - May 13, 1984; Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, May 27 - July 1, 1984; Sioux City Art Center, July 15 - Aug. 26, 1984)
"Director's Choice," Gardner and Florence Call Cowles Foundation, an exhibition of thirty-four works of art purchased with the Director's Discretionary Fund, 1973-1982, Des Moines Art Center, Sept. 13 - Nov. 13, 1983
"Lines of Power," Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc. N.Y., Mar. 12 - Apr. 9, 1977
"Ralston Crawford," by Helman Gallery, St. Louis, May 22 - June 25, 1971
Published ReferencesRichard B. Freeman, RALSTON CRAWFORD, University of Alabama Press, 1953, ill. p.13
Barbara Rose, "Ralston Crawford: American Modernist," in "Ralston Crawford," exh. cat., Helman Gallery, St. Louis, 1971
John Russell, "When the Belief In Technology Was Ironclad," NEW YORK TIMES, Arts and Leisure Section, Mar. 27, 1977, (review by Hirschl & Adler Galleeries' exhibition "Lines of Power")
James H. Maroney, Jr., "Lines of Power," Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., N. Y., 1977, color ill.
DMAC Bulletin, Mar./Apr. 1978 (cover ill.)
DES MOINES REGISTER, article by Nick Baldwin, Mar. 16, 1978, b/w ill.
"Director's Choice," Des Moines Art Center, 1983, b/w ill.
"Selected Works from the Des Moines Art Center's Permanent Collection," Waterloo Municipal Galleries, 1984, exh. cat. no.9
Barbara Haskell, "Ralston Crawford," Whitney Museum of American Art, N. Y., 1985, exh. cat. ref. p.158
DES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, Des Moines Art Center, 1985, ref. & b/w ill. p.55
ARCHI-SCAPES, Calendar, Pomegranate Calendars & Books, Petaluma, CA 94975, 1990, interior, full color ill.
AN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.91, color ill. p.90
"Letters from John Cowles to His Family, 1943-1976; 1952", Edited by Elizabeth Ballantine, Durango Herald Press, 2005, cover ill.
Canvas (/image): 32 × 40 in. (81.3 × 101.6 cm)
Images (1)
Audio (1)
DSM Speaks Audio Tour with Shane McQuillen, Community Member
Run Time: 1:15
Recorded by Shane McQuillen, CultureALL Community Ambassador / 2022
I worked in a large warehouse in New Zealand and that was my last position before my fifteen year journey that landed me here in the United States. Ten-hour shifts, driving a forklift, low pay, luckily I had interesting people around me. Looking at this artwork I’m instantly back in that work environment. I can smell the fumes, feel the tiredness, the camaraderie that came with the job. These memories make me very thankful for the people, hard work, and some luck that has me living where I am today. New Zealand is a farming country, much like Iowa, so memories of my previous life flash through me. I feel the size of the plant is representative of how impersonal farming has become. Feeling that, I yearn for home, but am also reminded how much it might have changed. The scale of the painting makes me feel that humans have become insignificant in the face of large entities. I am conflicted by the overbearing large size of the structure, while also feeling the serenity from the stillness in the painting. This is disconcerting to me, so I am left with a feeling of unease, and I am not sure why.
Shane McQuillen Bio
Shane was born in New Zealand, and worked for a decade in Australian forests. He went back to university as a nontraditional student (or adult student in New Zealand), and graduated in 2013. In 2014 he immigrated to the United States, spending two years working all over Chicago, then coming to Des Moines in 2016. He has two young children and enjoys experiencing Iowa with them and his partner.
DES MOINES SPEAKS
DSM Speaks are short audio reflections on artwork in our permanent collection, written and voiced by diverse members of our community. Contributors to this program were selected in partnership with CultureALL and the Des Moines Art Center. We hope by elevating these diverse ways of seeing we can encourage all visitors to connect more deeply and to see themselves and their identities within our walls.
